Space has become a recognized commodity, especially in large, congested cities. As a result, it is often the case that people in such environments have spatially limited living accommodations. For example, in single bedroom or studio apartment designs, sleeping space detracts from other space usage including, e.g., entertainment. One solution to this problem has been couch/bed mechanisms including, e.g., futon mattresses, Murphy beds and the like. However, when a couch is also a bed, as in the instance of a futon, guests are frequently sitting on the very mattress that the apartment resident must thereafter employ for sleeping.
Recognition of the problem has resulted in a number of retractable bed designs. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,829,912 to Quakenbush shows a retractable bed assembly for recreational vehicles having two inflexible crossed members per side in which one of the respective crossed members is moveably situated in a spring-loaded manner along rails to provide an open and closed state. This complicated device requires a rail-based superstructure on both the bed and roof-mounting superstructure.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,882,554 to Glass shows a retractable bed design having a complex, free-standing superstructure from which a bed platform is suspended with a multiplicity of noncrossed lines.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,787 to Chabrier shows an even more complex system in which three out of the four corners of a moving platform assembly travel in vertical rails, and the fourth is suspended by way of a line.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,461,735 to Danton shows a cantilevered wall and ceiling mounted assembly for foldable displacement of a platform.
In the design of a suspended bed assembly, care must be given to minimizing torsional twisting in the open position (in other words, the bed assembly cannot "swing in the breeze"), as well as disappearance in the retracted or closed position to enable close mounting to a ceiling, without the visible intrusion of lines, beams, cross-members and the like. Minimalism in design and operation is a sought-after goal to provide ease of installation, use and aesthetic disappearance of structure.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a suspended bed platform that minimizes design elements and torsional twisting effects, while providing ease of use and relative invisibility in the closed position.